Stories for March 2002

Monday, March 25

As L.A. city officials seek to curb the proliferation of billboards and reduce the thousands that already dot the urban landscape, property owners throughout the area stand to lose a steady and sometimes significant source of income from billboard lease p

The Federal Reserve last week inched toward an interest-rate hike, fueling speculation that the 12-month recession was finally drawing to a close. But while some are confident that an economic recovery is on the horizon, many believe that the downturn cou

Odds are you know Paul Goldenberg as the king. And you wouldn't be alone. Goldenberg, owner of Paul's TV & Video in La Habra, is etched into Southern California's cultural landscape as the king of big-screen TVs. Millions of people, from sports fans to m

In setting up a new sales office in Santa Monica, Yahoo Inc. is trying to make good on the promise brought by Terry Semel, the former Warner Bros. chief who replaced Tim Koogle as chief executive last spring.

Several major domestic and international banks have cut back their foreign trade finance operations in Los Angeles, laying off staff but creating an opportunity for L.A.'s base of small community banks to gain market share.

L.A.'s schools want to get more into show business and with it, the money from shooting movies and TV shows on its campuses. The Los Angeles Unified School District has hired the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. to manage and market its campus-f

Vans Inc., the seller of athletic shoes and T-shirts for the extreme sports set, is used to tapping into a consumer generally suspicious of behemoths like Nike Inc. and Reebok International. Now, it's taking the bet one step further by entering the music

In a decision being trumpeted by California's hospital industry, a state Court of Appeal panel has upheld the right of health-care facilities to place liens on monetary damages won by injured patients they treat even after the hospitals received payment

Coastview Capital LLC, the biomedical venture capital firm started by former Amgen Inc. chairman Gordon Binder, expects to close its first fund within the month, but it will total $60 million far less than the $100 million anticipated.

National Golf Properties Inc. is set to announce final terms of a planned merger with its primary tenant, golf-course operator American Golf Corp., and other interests controlled by National Golf Chairman David Price.

Monday, March 18

Cecil Mills' phone rang with another report of an arrest in Los Angeles Superior Court. This time, someone had tried to smuggle a 14-inch World War I fighting knife into the Los Angeles County Courthouse. The arrest was the fourth that week.

Like so many small business owners in L.A., Michael Nogueira feels like he's finally back in action. Six months after the terrorist attacks left his limousine and party planning business in a shambles, Nogueira said he's getting a sense that the bad days

During his three decades as a record producer, Denny Diante has worked with everyone from Barbra Streisand to the Grateful Dead. None of that experience, however, could have prepared him for his latest venture cataloging, digitizing and marketing a 400,

It's been a rocky ride, but six months after the Sept. 11 attacks many of L.A.'s stocks are doing just fine. Powered by strength in the fundamentals of a number of technology, media and homebuilding companies, the LABJ Index of 200 publicly traded compani

While leading a pre-opening tour of The Grove at Farmers Market last week, developer Rick Caruso spoke of the "residual value" of the 575,000-square-foot retail center, which he said would increase property values for nearby homeowners.

West San Fernando Valley cable viewers are the first in the United States to have a 402-channel lineup, according to Time Warner Cable officials, who have tripled their channel choices in the last two months as part of an effort to compete with satellite

The new head of the financially troubled county health department this week will outline to the Board of Supervisors plans to overhaul the county hospital network in a move that eventually could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

The U.S. may be at war, but many Angelenos have another issue on their minds: the 74th Academy Awards. It's a year where there's no clear-cut favorite to sweep. But any uncertainty will be resolved on March 24 when the winners are announced at the new Kod

National Golf Properties Inc. Chairman David Price may be willing to give up operating control of the Santa Monica REIT as part of an equity infusion that would restructure the finances of the ailing firm and its affiliates, according to sources familiar

Laemmle Theatres, the West Los Angeles-based art house chain, has pulled out of negotiations with developer CIM Group LLC to be the anchor tenant on a proposed 60,000-square-foot retail development in Hollywood.

SCPIE Holdings Inc., a leading Southern California underwriter in the troubled medical malpractice insurance sector, has had its rating downgraded in anticipation of a "substantial" year-end and fourth-quarter loss.

Downtown San Pedro was once a bustling blue-collar haven, where nearby shipbuilders and cannery workers would drop buy for drinks after a hard day's work. But one-by-one, the shipbuilders and canneries closed, and the downtown merchants who relied on thes

Organizers of last November's summit on the post-Sept. 11 economy claim that progress has been made on a broad range of issues, according to a report being released this week by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

Not everyone is happy that Hollywood is coming back to life. The community's renewed popularity is making some shop owners angry as several event-related street closures recently have caused them to lose business.

Shareholders of Scope Industries are banking on the wits of one man, Chief Executive Meyer Luskin. Shareholders, likening Luskin to Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, say it's his ability to make good investments that has brought value to Scope.

Speculation over who would win the GOP primary for governor and take on incumbent Democrat Gray Davis in November came to an end last week when Republican Bill Simon handily defeated former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan. But the real campaign is just getting

Kamran Ghalchi in late December was preparing to let 3,000 businesses know he planned to sue them because they had failed to notify employees and customers that they were in the presence of harmful chemicals.

Agensys Inc., a four-year-old Santa Monica biotech company, closed a $42.8 million private placement financing last month, a cash infusion it said would help boost its genetic research efforts into cancer treatment products.

"This was not an election won by Bill Simon," said local attorney and Republican Sheldon Sloan. "It was an election lost by the Riordan campaign and it shows that, no matter how many advantages one has going into a campaign, there's no substitute for comp

Monday, March 4

National Golf Properties Inc. Chairman David Price, now in the midst of a struggle to save his golf empire, borrowed heavily against his paper fortune in the mid to late '90s, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The March 15 opening of The Grove at Farmers Market, L.A.'s newest shopping center, could be met with massive traffic problems as thousands of cars a day are added to what is already an increasingly congested part of the city.

The music industry can claim some success against online piracy, but the battle to boost record sales remains to be won. Sales at U.S. retailers dropped 4.1 percent to the lowest levels in years, according to the Recording Industry Association of America,

It's long been considered the ultimate California pipe dream: a 700-mile high-speed rail network from San Diego to Sacramento, also connecting L.A. to the Bay Area. And no wonder, given its projected of cost $25 billion and a buildout time of 10 to 20 yea

A Hollywood executive has been fired. He's hurt, angry and ready to sue his former employer, and he's turned to Brian O'Neill, a founding partner of O' Neill, Lysaght & Sun LLP, for a little fatherly advice.

The stock of American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc., one of L.A.'s newest public companies, finally climbed above its $16 offering price last week after tumbling from a $22 a share high following its December IPO.

The promise of delivering movies, concerts and other programming to consumers wherever and whenever they want has proven too tempting to ignore for film studios, cable companies and a handful of Internet entrepreneurs, many of them based in Los Angeles.

Who's Who Law L.A.'s Rainmakers: In the world of onetime lawyer and bestselling author John Grisham, the Rainmaker is a brash kid with an eye for truth who lands the big client for his down-and-out boss.

Rockwell Collins Inc. soon will go to trial against Hughes Electronics Corp. over breach of contract, claiming that the El Segundo-based electronics giant misrepresented the value of the in-flight entertainment business it purchased in 1997.

The parent company of Los Angeles architecture and engineering giant DMJMH+N (formerly Daniel Mann Johnson & Mendenhall) plans to raise as much as $473 million in an initial public offering to be completed in the coming months.